Hungarian pilgrims present manuscript of Bible to Pope Francis

Budapest, October 14 (MTI) – A group of 60 pilgrims presented to Pope Francis a five-volume manuscript version of the Bible made by more than 5,000 Hungarians, in Vatican City on Wednesday, Gyorgy Benyik, a bible expert, told MTI.

All pilgrims were involved in the project, he said.

The Pope spent a longer time with the group studying the volumes and was surprised to learn about the number of people involved in copying, Benyik said. He expressed special thanks to Laszlo Kadar for binding the volumes, he added.

Benyik explained earlier that the project goes back to 1983, the year when guests visiting a parish in Soltvadkert, in southern Hungary, began to copy the pages of Matthew’s Gospel by hand.

The first page was prepared by Father Lajos Kemeny and the rest by several theologians, including Cardinal Peter Erdo, today’s leader of the Hungarian Catholic Church.

After several years on the back-burner, the project came to life in 2014 under the auspices of Benyik, a vicar in Catholic parishes in Szeged, in southern Hungary.